I can assure you that having calls cancelled after 10 seconds or a very short time happens on a daily basis. There are many reasons it can happen, the main one being that another unit calls up who are closer and volunteers for the job, therefore cancelling the need for the first unit.

Pretty straight forward really had you thought about it!!

 

Seems strange that I've only seen it when it involves pushing into a queue: Lights on, shove into queue, lights off.

I don't think ambulances "patrol" like police cars do. (Although, at least round here, they do spread out and lurk in dark corners to reduce response times.) Have seen many police cars switch the blues on to shove into a queue, only to switch them off once in. (Can't believe that you would get a call, stick the blues on only to have the call cancelled 10 seconds later.) Never seen an ambulance (or fire engine) behave in such a manner.

 

 

 

 

 

Following on from the biker's need to have main-beam on to be seen, I saw a bus with it's main-beam on today too. Red double-decker it was. I have to wonder why. It's not like it has a requirement to scythe it's way through traffic.

 

Red double-decker trumps ambulance for not being seen maybe? ;)

 

 

The fire brigade will not cancel calls, I have tried to cancel them loads of times when turning up for jobs that are not as they were initially reported and they weren't required. They will always continue to travel on blue lights. 

 

The ambulance service are so stretched at the moment i cannot see them cancelling calls either, there almost zero chance another ambulance will be closer and free and even less chance the casualty miraculously gets better.

 

To be frank the ambulance service is in such a crap state at the moment its dangerous. Response times are shocking.

Mike,

Sorry, but emergency service drivers/responders are human like the rest of us.

And some are unfortunately attracted to the job for the entirely wrong reasons.

And some of them CANT drive despite being designated drivers;

Witness the Ambulence with the smoked clutch, because a driver choose to be lazy and drive/attempt to drive across grass, now exactly how this resulted in him frying the clutch is beyond ANY reasoning.

Ditto the Ambulance driving down into an icy cul-de-sac, and unable to get out, sorry but WTF!

Are they NOT trained to access the situation/conduct risk assessments or god forbid simply exercise a modicum of common sense?

So, sorry, but I will not automatically "doff my hat" to the Emergency services and their bytimes very Union minded drivers.

regards

Marcus

PS

The Ambulance Service is also quite unnecessarily "run ragged" by spurious calls, for simple cuts or falls (and drink often being involved) they do deserve some sympathy for that aggravation.

Edited 10 June, 201412 yr by dieseldogg

Mike,

Sorry, but emergency service drivers/responders are human like the rest of us.

And some are unfortunately attracted to the job for the entirely wrong reasons.

And some of them CANT drive despite being designated drivers;

Witness the Ambulence with the smoked clutch, because a driver choose to be lazy and drive/attempt to drive across grass, now exactly how this resulted in him frying the clutch is beyond ANY reasoning.

Ditto the Ambulance driving down into an icy cul-de-sac, and unable to get out, sorry but WTF!

Are they NOT trained to access the situation/conduct risk assessments or god forbid simply exercise a modicum of common sense?

So, sorry, but I will not automatically "doff my hat" to the Emergency services and their bytimes very Union minded drivers.

regards

Marcus

PS

The Ambulance Service is also quite unnecessarily "run ragged" by spurious calls, for simple cuts or falls (and drink often being involved) they do deserve some sympathy for that aggravation.

 

 

what does "betimes very union drivers" mean?

 

So you think the ambulance service are run ragged by spurious calls and the police are not then?  Most of my cops are run ragged attending jobs that have nothing to do with the police because the ambulance service use the police as first responders and then downgrade their own response time once the police arrive.

 

It happens, i spent 30 mins doing CPR on someone on sunday before a proper ambulance arrived at a job, and this was in a built up major town. Unfortunately the bloke didn't make it.

Ed209,

I did not wish to be picking on the Ambulence Drivers in particular, hence the slight commiseration thrown in their direction.

Union minded from reading some of the "sprees" in the papers, and the fatueous exceuses plausibly put forward.

PS

For my sins I have worked in Local Government for 30 odd years and fully know the ALMOST impossibility of getting rid of unsuitable/handless/cognatively challenged/lazy/inept/dysfuctional employees, whatever way you wish to describe it.

Some of whom SIMPLY cannot drive competently, or are not interested in driving competently, in that they needlessly abuse clutchs/gearboxs and are hopeless are reversing trailers/reverse parking.

But hey! they passed their driving test!

etc etc

I therefore, knowing the appalling failings and deficiencies in the NHS, have ABSOLUTLY no reason for imagining the Ambulence Service to be any different to LA model.

marcus

Edited 10 June, 201412 yr by dieseldogg

6) anyone quoting Daily Wail reporting as a legitamate source of information is barking

 

I'm not quite sure how the accident was fabricated by the Daily Mail.

 

Do you know something we don't?

Ed209,

I did not wish to be picking on the Ambulence Drivers in particular, hence the slight commiseration thrown in their direction.

Union minded from reading some of the "sprees" in the papers, and the fatueous exceuses plausibly put forward.

PS

For my sins I have worked in Local Government for 30 odd years and fully know the ALMOST impossibility of getting rid of unsuitable/handless/cognatively challenged/lazy/inept/dysfuctional employees, whatever way you wish to describe it.

Some of whom SIMPLY cannot drive competently, or are not interested in driving competently, in that they needlessly abuse clutchs/gearboxs and are hopeless are reversing trailers/reverse parking.

But hey! they passed their driving test!

etc etc

I therefore, knowing the appalling failings and deficiencies in the NHS, have ABSOLUTLY no reason for imagining the Ambulence Service to be any different to LA model.

marcus

 

sorry but i still have no idea what you are talking about. 

 

If you think the police are "union minded"  they don't actually have a union and it is illegal for a police officer to join a union.

 

Does your local authority offer any driver training to ensure staff have the skills to drive as required? If not you can't really blame the staff for not being able to reverse a trailer if they have never been taught how to do it.

 

I have had several driving courses and will freely admit i am hopeless at reversing a trailer because i have never being shown how to do it.

Edited 10 June, 201412 yr by ed209

Just why one should require to be taught how to ordinarly drive, ordinary vehicles, in ordinary circumstances, having passed a driving test, I cannot understand.

And any driver interested in their driving should always be seeking to improve their skills.

By always wondering "why" did that happen, what did I do that caused that to happen.

There is ALWAYS a reason.

Ditto, why should one be required to be taught how to reverse, all it requires is simple observation of the laws of Physics and how the effect of turning the steering wheel this way, will cause the tail end of the trailer to move that way.

If a driver cannot assimilate this information of their own cognisance, they should NOT be driving, they lack the cognative or spatial facilities to be a competent driver.

Abs simples.

Sorry.

From a shortsighted farmers son, who could not reverse because he could not see(properly) to reverse.

But now with glasses can.

btw

We were getting bulk wood chip delivered to a site, the first artic lorry turned up, looked at the access and stated " I wont be able to get in there"

I said you should, try throwing your cab up-the-hill and trying it from that approach.

Much wheedling and cajoling later I got him in.

The next driver turned up, looked at the gap in passing, threw the lorry round, and reversed striaght back in.

Now what was the difference in the 2 drivers?

Both had passed the HGV test, both had experience, but one could drive and the other could not.

I should add, that we had not had HGV's in this site before, NOR do I possess an HGV licence or have any experience in driving an HGV truck.

BUT I could access the possibility/probibility/almost certainity of the truck being able to reverse in.

Could you explain that thought/assessment process.

marcus

Edited 11 June, 201412 yr by dieseldogg

Shock horror, some people are better at some aspects of their job than others, people are different.

 

 

You are obviously a superior human being! This comes across from the tone of the posts and the fact you are an expert at HGV driving despite having never driven one.

Edited 11 June, 201412 yr by ed209

Ed209,

That was absolutly NOT my intention;

I am short sighted, flat footed, not good socially or as a negeotiater.

I do not fancy myself as a Pilot/fighter pilot or brain surgeon or F1 driver (or indeed as any sort of fast driver)

I have never owned or driven fast cars, simply because I do not rate myself capable of driving them safely (unlike others apparently)

I am however good with my hands, have a basic understanding of how things mechanical work, and will take on to drive/operate dammnd near anything with an engine and wheels or tracks.

And absolutly yes we are all different, so why attempt tp pretend that one can make a silk purse out of a sows ear.That is to say an emergency response driver.

i.e.

If Sir will just attend this course he will come back as a trained, whatever, say 360 excavator perhaps.

The absolute best 360 excavator I have ever seen was absolutly self taught, with no training whatsoever.

PS

In respect of the "training/not trained" aspect  try this one for size;

I sourced and arranged for a Flagpole to be erected at our Liesure Centre.

A week later the Centre Manager burst into a meeting and rudely/abruptdely demanded why I had erected an unsafe flagpole, slapping a busted-up weight down on the table.

A few question elicited that his staff member  had failed to adequetely tie the weight to the flag.

The guy's defence was "I was never trained to tie knots"

Said guy had the brains to train and be a very competent electericl engineer/tradesman.

FFS!

regards,

Marcus